Inside "20 Minutes Away," julianna joy Turns Vulnerability, Rage, And Reinvention Into Something Electric
- STAFF
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
By: Staff
We got together with julianna joy for an exciting interview to delve into the stories and happenings behind the making of this and learn more about the artist in "The Cage" Music Blog and we are excited to share it with you!
Here’s how it went:
Q. Your vocals have such a sharp, emotional texture IN “20 Minutes Away”. From the listener’s side, it feels like you delivered it while the feelings were still very close to the surface. When you stepped up to record, did you have to push through any emotion, or did you intentionally lean deeper into it?
A. I definitely leaned intentionally into it. The song I originally started as an acoustic song - just me and a guitar. I knew that if I wanted to take this song to the pop place that it is in now, I would have to really find a way to convey that same kind of emotional texture while also keeping an energy to it that had to be rebirthed with adding a production to it. There were points during the recording, where Ellen, who produced this song with me, actually had to tell me to take it down a notch because it was not serving the track. If one day, her and I end up doing a track breakdown where we end up going through the stems together, you will hear some of the funniest gang vocals ever. Some of them are so violent and aggressive.
Q. There’s a feeling in “20 Minutes Away” that hit us instantly: that sting of being brushed aside after letting yourself get excited. The “sorry, I overslept” moment feels especially revealing. Was that pulled from one specific real-life experience, or did you blend pieces of different situations into the song? And if it did come from real life, can you tell us how that moment actually ended?
A. She did actually sleep through the day. It was in reference to this time in December 2023 where we were supposed to be working on a track for the project I was working on at the time and she ended up sleeping through the final session we had specifically scheduled to be the day before she moved out of LA. It was kind of at that point that I learned the lesson of trying not to mix friendship in business anymore, and it was also the first sign that our friendship was on the outs.
Q. The opening bassline has so much intensity and depth. It creates this feeling of urgency and anxiety before your vocal even fully lands, and there’s something almost reverse-reverberating about it. What led to that opener, and what did you want it to make people feel right away?
A. My favorite album from this last year has to be Virgin by Lorde. The album is full of this indescribable angst and doubt and longing that I feel in every step I take at the age of 24. It changed my life, like most things she creates. The first time I heard the beats of "Hammer" and "Current Affairs", I knew the record was going to change how I conveyed my feelings in music forever. There's a rawness to its mix and its skeleton that I have carried with me into everything I've written since. When I went into our first session on this song with Ellen, I had actually spent the day on my laptop, trying to record a bass line to the song that I could bring into the session as a reference. when I decided to resurface this song out of my voice memos or the vault as Taylor Swift fans would call it. I knew that I wanted it to be a pop song and the bass line was something I heard so feverishly in my brain, I had to do my best with my few production skills to convey it before we sat down. It wasn't until ellen ended up pulling up the sample that we used for that bass sent track that I 100% knew what the rest of the song is going to sound like.
Q. We loved the high-energy delivery and all the ear-candy synth moments throughout the track. How did you build that soundscape? Was it shaped closely with a team, or did a lot of that world come from you first?
A. I think in total Ellen and I did at least 5 to 6 sessions for this song and a lot of the main elements were in there in that first go around. I'd listen to the bounce that we made that day over and over and then I'd let it sit for a couple of days. I'd then listen to it again and then I'd come back to Ellen with voice memos, videos of me suggesting ideas, singing out ideas, or explaining what I was hearing in my brain. The most particular part for me was getting that guitar section in the second verse 100% how I heard it in my brain. We recorded it at Ellen's bosses' studio house with my boyfriend Cole, who also plays guitar for me live. It was a lot of takes to get this very Queen-esque rock opera type guitar section that I think really defines the whole song. As ellen and I have built our working relationship, I think we've grown to understand how we start a song and what we have to do to finish it.
Q. The visuals around this release feel like a new dimension of your expression. The darker hair, the tension in the photos, and even moments where your face is covered all make the world around the song feel more intense. What did you want the visual side of this release to reveal about where you are emotionally now?
A. In a way, I kind of feel like I'm starting over in my career. My publishing label got sold to Sony last year, which was a difficult transition for me. I think because for a while, I didn't know anyone who owned my music, it felt like my understanding of the industry got stripped back and I kind of had to go it with no guidance. Jamie Cerreta, who was the previous president of my publishing label was my go to guy. I would ask him questions all the time and he would give me as many guiding principles as possible, but since we no longer work together, I was kind of going in blind. Also, I released an album last year that I thought it was gonna be monumental and ended up being a flop in its first year (not the end of the world, all good music ages like wine), and I was going again with a new collaborator. I think the real center of all of this though is that I really struggle with feeling free in this landscape the music industry has become. Creating a mask, quite literally and metaphorically has been away for me to be combative against generative AI and the industry machine that has been fueled by the coals of TikTok and Instagram reels. I want to feel a sense of control about everything I do, including when I show my face, and how I present myself. I have no budget anymore. If I can't pay someone to do it, I will do it myself. I think that rage of exploitation and lack of ownership of anything in the age of AI really comes through in the photography, the videos, and the styling I did myself. I thrift all my clothes, I use the cameras I got as gifts, and all of the visuals I made on my own in Lightroom, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or Canva. The only thing I did not make was the mask - I had my friend Taylor Tuominen, who I've known since my freshman year of high school, make the mask for me. I don't have many people in my life who have known me for that long, so getting to work with her and have her understand the vision was also a reminder to me of who I've always been.
Q. This feels like one of your most electric and exciting releases so far. It has that dancefloor energy, but it’s still coming from a very vulnerable place. When you open up that emotional vault in your writing, does it make you feel exposed, or does turning it into music help you process it?
A. To be honest, it's a mixture of both. This song in particular makes me feel very vulnerable because the first time I ever shared it online, I got a lot of intense reactions from people in my life who knew both of us and it made me feel the sense of dread around it.
Q. If you had just one sentence to pull someone into “20 Minutes Away,” what would you say to make them want to hear it?
A. I would say listen to it if you're sick of everything sounding the same because I promise, it will feel familiar but completely new to you.
Q. Because “20 Minutes Away” feels like such a bold step into a new chapter, what do you want this release to say about you as an artist at this moment?
A. I want people to treat it like a sign that I'm not going anywhere. I'm meant for this career, despite what all of my anxiety tells me about it.
julianna joy, thank you so much, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us!
We’re happy to have shared julianna joy’s exciting journey with you and uncovered such inspiring insights about their creative process.
Now, click the links below to experience this incredible work firsthand!
